Tesco partners with London Gay Pride
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Tesco has signed a deal to become a major sponsor of London Pride, the UK’s largest gay festival, as it outlines plans to host its biggest ever event in the capital.
Tesco will also host a family area designed to provide families attending the event with a “safe, relaxed and chilled out” place with family-friendly entertainment and activities aimed at younger children.
The supermarket will also contribute to funding the free-to-attend event, which is organised by volunteers.
Tesco joins Smirnoff as headline sponsor for the annual event and builds on Tesco’s presence at the 2011 festival.
The news comes shortly after Tesco ended its 10-year partnership with Cancer Research’s Race for Life fundraising event.
Pride London is already the largest Gay Pride event in the UK and it is extending its carnival route and adding a second day to the festival for 2012, when it will host the global festival WorldPride 2012.
Andrew Higginson, CEO of retailing services at Tesco, says: “Tesco is the UK’s largest private employer, and a very diverse international organisation where everybody is welcome. Our Out at Tesco team will be working closely with Pride London to ensure next year’s event is even more a fun.”
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Readers' comments (14)
brian m | Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:13 pm
Dropping Cancer Research’s Race for Life fundraising event for Gay pride! I'm quite sure that will go down really well with the public.
Ok do both, but to drop something that effects one in three of us for something that effects peerhaps 1 in 20 does not make good marketing sense (or moral sense for that matter!).
Tesco has been losing its marketing edge recently and its showed in their last figure (although still pretty good!)
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Charlie C | Mon, 24 Oct 2011 3:01 pm
Please keep "morals" out of this debate. Since when has marketing had anything to do with morals? Seems like a brave decision by Tesco. Good luck to them and anyone else who attempts to foster a little more tolerance and understanding in this world - God knows, we could all use more of that...
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Mark | Mon, 24 Oct 2011 3:36 pm
Would have thought those in the marketing sector would know the difference between London Pride and Pride London. London Pride is a very acceptable "real" beer!
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ER | Mon, 24 Oct 2011 3:56 pm
What I don't understand here is how the Gay parade will work well with the "family-friendly" area. Doesn't look like a good synergy to me. An odd marketing.
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Daniel Gilsenan | Wed, 26 Oct 2011 3:50 am
I worked for Tesco until quite recently, and was heavily involved in setting up the network that supports the company's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff. Knowing how the company works, I can virtually guarantee there was no link between dropping Race for Life and picking up Pride - to imply so is misleading. Furthermore, Tesco's commitment to Pride would be minuscule compared to the tens of millions of pounds in support the company gives other charities annually.
The implication that Pride doesn’t fit with “family” and that Tesco is swapping out a “one in three” charity for a one in twenty implies gay people are born, raised and live in a bubble – without parents, grand parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews or dare I say it, children… Some may prefer to pretend otherwise, but gay people are everywhere – including in our families.
Some imply this is a bad marketing choice. Perhaps they’re not doing it to optimise marketing bang for buck, rather because it’s right - perhaps they’re doing it to send a signal to their tens of thousands of gay employees and tens of millions of gay customers around the world that it’s safe to be themselves at Tesco.
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sharon | Sun, 6 Nov 2011 5:01 pm
whether dropping race for life at almost the same time as sponsoring gay pride is 'coincidental' or not is neither here nor there. cancer effects so many people in this country, i lost family to it, and i find it deplorable that Tesco dropped the race for life just when it is so difficult to raise funds,and instead decided to sponsor an event that relates to a lot less people. the amount of profit they have made from the shopping public surely should have made it possible to sponsor both
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James Jacob Prasch | Sun, 6 Nov 2011 9:33 pm
Retailers should not take sides in a culture war when they have customers on both sides of the issues.
They just lost a customer to ASDA,
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John | Mon, 7 Nov 2011 11:13 pm
There are some comments here that criticise Tesco for dropping the sponsorship of Cancer Research's Race for Life and picking up on the Gay Pride sponsorship as a numbers game. Quite correct! However, the numbers don't stack up. Cancer effects 1 in 3 of us; homosexuality is closer to 1 in 100 - do the maths! Sounds like they just want to be trendy. Goodbye Tesco; I'm off!
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Tom Cook | Tue, 8 Nov 2011 9:24 am
I am think morals should be involved in marketing. But more importantly morals should be involved in our daily life. If some of these negative comments come from those of a faith background I would encourage them to do what ever they can to support Tesco in this venture. Faith is there for those who follow it and is the to LOVE everybody else. I am shamed that the Church have not provided a family friendly zone before Tesco.
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Fiona | Tue, 8 Nov 2011 9:34 pm
I feel very disappointed. Not because tesco has supported another cause but the have dropped the race for life which is as recognizable as children in need. Given the time we live in and the fact the all charities are struggling It would have been better to have seen tesco continue in cancer support given the profits they make
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